• Bushfire warnings are still in place in Victoria and South Australia

• Shirley Temple has died at the age of 85

• A military transport plane has crashed in Algeria, killing 77 people, including women and children

• A Lebanese skier competing in Sochi has sparked a furore back home with some topless photos

• Aussie snowboarder Scotty James has unloaded on the Winter Olympic judges for marking him unfairly

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9:58am

A security guard for a hospital on the Gold Coast is suing for $205,000 after his chair collapsed at work, The Gold Coast Bulletin reports.

But the Queensland government says the 43-year-old was swinging on the seat and he is “obese”.

“(The hospital) had been warned that the chairs in the security office were in poor repair and constantly breaking,” Mr Bartlette has alleged in a statement. He says he suffers from ongoing back pain as a result of the incident. The government has a different story.

“The incident occurred as a result of the plaintiff applying excessive pressure on the chair by leaning back in the chair such that its front legs were raised off the floor,” its statement said.

A witness, who uploaded two videos of the incident to YouTube, claims the woman was intoxicated and became furious when her flirting was rebuffed. The footage shows her ranting and screaming expletives.

She was handcuffed by airline staff, and police escorted her off the plane after it was diverted to Minneapolis. She may face charges.

News_Rich_Media: A woman has been escorted off her flight after she became aggressive when a man refused her sexual advances. Flight crew members had to apprehend her and the flight was diverted. Courtesy: YouTube

9:45am

A Queensland man says he’s been harassed by police after talking to the media about the officers who tasered a woman in the eye.

The 36-year-old woman has lost the use of her eye after a metal prong from the stun gun hit her as police tried to restrain her in Logan last week.

A man who says he witnessed the incident now claims he’s being harassed by police, who have been repeatedly driving past his home and activating their sirens for no reason.

“They are running their sirens and they’re doing that at least seven times a day. They’re not pulling anybody over or anything, they’re trying to intimidate me for going on the news,” he told the ABC.

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson has hit out at Qantas Airways CEO Alan Joyce, saying his strategy of protecting Qantas’s 65 per cent market share in Australia has left the company in “deep s**t”.

“He drew a line in the sand and said that Virgin was not going to have more than 35 per cent of the market and he’s lost hundreds of millions in order to try to hold that line,” Mr Branson said.

The flamboyant Brit warned the Abbott government against offering aid to Qantas ahead of Mr Joyce’s trip to Canberra today.

“Every company in Australia would come begging to the government if they were to allow that to happen,” he said.

The mother of a schoolboy who was allegedly sexually groomed by a teacher has accused the South Australian Education Department of abandoning her family, despite the teacher in question being charged with multiple sex offences months ago, Adelaide Now reports.

The woman, 39, has attacked bureaucrats for “letting down” her son, who she claims has received minimal support since being “sexually targeted” by his PE teacher last year.

She has also blamed senior management at the country school for failing to believe her son, 13, amid claims the case has led to a rise in bullying against him.

The human bones were spotted by a helicopter pilot on the north face of the Matterhorn in August. A police team recovered the remains and equipment, including an ice axe.

They checked them against a database of about 280 climbers who have been listed as missing in the region since 1926. Thanks to DNA tests, experts have identified the remains as those of an Englishman, but police have decided not to reveal his name.

News_Image_File: A view of the Matterhorn.

8:26am

A Brisbane mother, Beth Whaanga, has lost more than 100 Facebook friends in a few hours after posting “confronting” topless photos on the social media site.

Ms Whaanga was diagnosed with breast cancer on her 32nd birthday last year. She had a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction in November, and her body was riddled with scars.

Instead of hiding, Ms Whaanga posted the photos on Facebook as part of a project called “Under the Red Dress”.

“The aim of this project is to raise awareness for breast cancer,” she said. “If you find these images offensive please hide them from your feed.”

A German zoo says one of its polar bears has died after swallowing a jacket or bag dropped into his enclosure by a visitor.

The Wilhelma zoo in Stuttgart says zookeepers realised something was wrong with their 25-year-old polar bear Anton when he started vomiting pieces of fabric. The bear died of severe intestinal injuries on Monday.

The zoo says it’s unclear why Anton ate the object. His keepers suspect there was something tasty inside that the bear couldn’t resist.

News_Image_File: Anton the polar bear pictured walking around his enclosure at the zoo.

7:51am

A police officer has been hospitalised after being hit by a car in Sydney’s southwest. The senior constable was struck at about 11:35 last night.

The 61-year-old male driver was breath tested, returning a negative result. He is assisting police with their inquiries into the incident.

Meanwhile, the 41-year-old police officer was taken to Liverpool Hospital for minor injuries and is in a stable condition.

7:44am

Philip Seymour Hoffman was haunted by “demons” and he desperately tried to control his addictions by attending Narcotics Anonymous meetings.

That information comes from two small diaries, which police found in Hoffman’s apartment after the actor died of an apparent heroin overdose on February 2.

“It’s a stream of consciousness and difficult to follow,” one source has told NBC.

Some of the entries appear to have been written while Hoffman was in rehab.

News_Rich_Media: Family and friends attend a private funeral of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Brad George’s mother, 37-year-old Georgina Latshaw, was found dead in her bedroom on Friday. The teenager had called 911, saying he returned home from school to find the front door open and her car in the driveway.

After his arrest, George reportedly told police he broke into his mum’s room while she was sleeping on Thursday night and waited until she was snoring before he bludgeoned her to death with a dumbbell. The boy went to school the next day.

He said he had stopped taking medication for a mood disorder on February 1 and started to believe Ms Latshaw was poisoning him with bleach.

News_Rich_Media: Former Hollywood child star Shirley Temple had died of natural causes at the age of 85. Linda So reports.

6:40am

Bushfire warnings are still in place in Victoria and South Australia.

At least 34 homes have been destroyed so far across Victoria, and 12 fires in the state are believed to have been lit deliberately. Meanwhile, South Australian firefighters have been dealing with an out-of-control blaze threatening the settlements of Stone Hut and Wirrabara.

Ms Motes was found dead in a bathtub on Sunday. On January 19, she wrote: “So my ‘sister’ said that with all her friends & fans she doesn’t need any more love. Just so you all know ‘America’s Sweetheart’ is a B***H!!”

Ms Motes followed that message up with a series of increasingly bitter tweets. A few days later, she said her family had abandoned her.

News_Image_File: There doesn’t appear to have been much love between Julia Roberts and her half-sister.

“June and other family members will be at the trial in Pretoria,” Ms Steenkamp’s parents said in a statement. “All we are looking for is closure, and to know that our daughter did not suffer on that tragic Valentine’s Day.”

Ms Steenkamp was killed by Pistorius in the pre-dawn hours of February 14 last year. He denies it was murder, and says he shot through a toilet door after mistaking his girlfriend for an intruder.